The pain of rejection

Candidates who have applied to attend SAIS Bologna will be told next week if they have been accepted or rejected.

This post is for those fell short.

Rejection is more than a fact of life. It is an enduring feature, a constant challenge, not always predictable but as sure to come about as the four seasons in my home town of Buffalo, New York.

You know when you stretch yourself that there's a chance you'll fail. But it still hurts when you don't succeed.

The Irish writer Samuel Beckett put it well: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

Consider these failures:

• Abraham Lincoln lost in his first try for the Illinois legislature, lost in his first attempt to be nominated for Congress, lost in the senatorial elections of 1854 and 1858.
• Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and did not read until he was seven.
• Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime.
• Winston Churchill failed sixth grade.
• Elvis Presley was told by the manager of the Grand Ole Opry in 1954: "You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."
• James Joyce's "The Dubliners" was rejected by 22 publishers.

Some readers of this blog will receive an email next week saying they have not been admitted for next year. It's little solace to be told that it's a competitive process, that we have to be selective, that it's not the end of the world.

How about looking at it this way:

• You've given it your best shot, which is the best you can do. If you haven't done your best, what could you have done better?
• Have you learned something about yourself along the way? As I've said before, it's not the destination that counts but the getting there. 
• What were your strongest points along the way? What are the areas you might work on?
• Are you as sure as when you started that a master's in international relations is for you? If so, and you have other options, then you have that choice. If you don't have other options, you can start anew and be a stronger candidate if that's what you want. Or perhaps you've decided in the end that you'd like to do something else.

While rejection does hurt, you knew when you applied that admission to SAIS is competitive. You may want to know the reasons you fell short. I think you deserve an answer if you ask the question. We will try to respond to anyone who does ask, although please keep in mind that we are very busy these next few weeks.

Facing the truth can be hard. I remember well a conversation I once had in a hotel in New Delhi, India, with a senior manager for the company I worked for, who very candidly and in excruciating detail laid out my faults. He did it so I could learn. As I trusted him, I listened and learned.

Over time, each of us builds a track record of success and failure. 

Consider this: Michael Jordan was once cut from his high school basketball team.

Even the high and mighty know defeat.

Tomorrow: Weekly quiz

Nelson Graves

Internships & jobs

SAIS is a professional program. That means it educates students to take up jobs, most of them after finishing a two-year master's. SAIS graduates find employment all over the world in the public and private sectors, in the non-profit world and with multilateral organizations.

Some students do not wait for graduation to make their mark -- they work while at SAIS. Internships and other jobs can provide valuable experience and also help pay for rent, pizza and the other costs of living in Bologna or Washington.

We get many questions from candidates about internships. You deserve some answers.

First, as Ann Gagliardi of Career Services in Bologna explains in the video below, some students find work while at the Bologna Center. There is a range of jobs at the Center, and students with the appropriate language skills can manage to find work or volunteer opportunities outside the school. Most students do  internships during the summer between their first and second years.

(Career Services provides partial financial assistance to support unpaid full-time summer internships between the first and second year of study. Some academic concentrations also make funds available to students for unpaid summer internships.)

Washington, as many of you know, is a haven for internships. The U.S. government, international organizations, consultancies, think tanks, embassies, corporations: the list of employers is long. Is there another city in the world with as many internship opportunities? Alumni often say that the combination of a strong focus on academics while in Bologna and the professional opportunities available in DC make for the perfect SAIS experience.

Here are some figures on internships that Bologna Center students performed between their first and second years in the summer of 2010 (percentages of reporting students):

private sector	19%
non-profit	28%
multilateral	24%
public	29%
public non-US (percentage of all public)	29%
public US  (percentage of all public)	71%

By location

Africa	11%
Asia	12%
Europe	27%
Latin America	15%
Middle East	4%
United States/Canada	31%

Nelson Graves

From Bologna back to Istanbul

Efsane Aşkin is proof that there is no typical SAIS alumnus.

A Turkish citizen, Efsane studied at the Bologna Center after doing her undergraduate work in the United States. As she recounts in the video below, she took advantage of what she learned at SAIS to carve out a career as an entrepreneur in her home country.

Efsane discusses at some length the textile business that she runs in Istanbul and explains how her understanding of trade helped her stand out in a very competitive industry. As if to prove that monetary matters do not take a back seat to trade at SAIS, she even notes that with a weakening U.S. dollar, her business in Europe has grown. Her clients include some of the biggest names in fashion.

What Efsane does not discuss -- as much out of modesty as for lack of time -- is that she also has a chain of 14 award-winning restaurants spread out in five countries.

In her spare time, Efsane runs the Johns Hopkins alumni chapter in Turkey, a responsibility that brought her back to Bologna this past weekend.

A SAIS degree can prepare you for a wide range of careers. Not everyone has Efsane's entrepreneurial flair. But as she herself notes, the Bologna Center experience very much helped her on her way.



Nelson Graves

Giving back to SAIS Bologna

Students develop strong bonds at SAIS Bologna, both with one another and with the institution. The small size and diversity of the student body and the intensity of the experience create a special atmosphere. When they graduate from SAIS, they often want to give back.

The Advisory Council is made up of distinguished leaders from Europe and the United States who represent both the private and public sectors. The Council plays a major role in the life of the Center by providing operating advice and financial support. Many of the Council members are Bologna Center alumni.

Today we introduce you to Astrid Haas and Patrick Flanagan, who were in Bologna this past weekend attending the Advisory Council's annual meeting as junior members.

Astrid attended the Bologna Center in 2008-09 and then SAIS DC, where she received her master's in 2010. Patrick studied at the Center last year and is currently attending SAIS DC.

In the video below, Astrid and Patrick speak about their experiences at SAIS. In addition, Astrid discusses her current job as an economist in the Ministry of the East African Community, in the government of Kenya. Patrick's concentration at SAIS is International Development.

The overriding theme of their remarks is their desire to give back to SAIS Bologna. As Astrid puts it: "We all have a fantastic experience here, and we would all like to give back as soon as possible once we've graduated. But as a young person who has just started their career, it's not always possible to give back financially, but this way you're given an opportunity as a young member to be part of the Advisory Board for the Bologna Center to look at issues, where it's going in the future."



Nelson Graves

Weekly quiz

Old habits die hard. (No, the quiz is not "Who wrote the lyrics to a 2004 movie of that title?") This blog is hardly three months old, and already I'm accustomed to giving readers an update on our readership each week.

Here is the list of countries with the greatest number of readers to date:

- United States
- Italy
- South Korea
- Greece
- Sri Lanka
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- France
- Brazil
- Japan

Is your country on that list?

Click on the placemarks to see the ranking of the top 10 countries.

We're definitely in the market for ideas for blog posts. We plan posts next week on internship/job opportunities, budgeting for graduate school and a look at a debate course run by American Foreign Policy Professor John Harper.

What would you like to see? We welcome your ideas.

Now, the quiz.

Who is the man in the picture and what does he have to do with SAIS Bologna?

Send in your answers using the comment section below. The winner gets a free lunch at Giulio's caffè.

Ivo, today

Ivo and Giulio

Nelson Graves

Concentrate on your future

Before we dive into concentrations, I would like to thank all of our candidates for attending your interviews. Now you can sit back and breathe a sigh of relief. The Admissions Committee will gather next week, and shortly after candidates will be informed.    

All SAIS students take up two concentrations. Each student needs to fulfill the requirements of International Economics. In addition, a student needs to choose either a Regional or Functional program of study.

The Regional programs focus on every area of the globe. The Functional programs include International Relations and its various strands -- conflict management, energy/resources/environment (ERE), international law, global theory and history, strategic studies -- as well as International Development.

If you have applied, you will have indicated either a Regional or Functional concentration on your application. The choice you indicated is not binding. During the first year a student has the chance to think things through, to attend different classes and to make a final choice. Your academic adviser will help you select your concentration and make sure it is aligned with your career goals.

International Development ("IDEV" in SAIS-speak) is the only program with capped enrollment. A limited number of students admitted to SAIS are accepted into IDEV, although courses are open to all SAIS students on a space available basis. Students are admitted directly to IDEV as part of the SAIS application process.

The International Economics concentration requires the successful completion of at least six economic courses. Four are required: intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics, trade theory and monetary theory. The other courses can be chosen from a rather long list covering economic theory, development economics, quantitative methods and international finance.

If you have already taken intermediate micro or macro, or both, you can opt to take a waiver exam to place out of that course and to enroll in higher level courses. If you have not taken intermediate economics, pre- term is a good way to meet some of the requirements before the start of the academic year. 

You have already heard us mention the importance of languages at SAIS. We deem them so important that Regional concentrations require students to demonstrate proficiency in a language of that region, whether or not they have already passed a proficiency exam in a language from outside that region.

A student at SAIS Bologna can pursue any concentration. We recommend that candidates interested in concentrating in Asian Studies consider spending two years in Washington, partly because Asian languages are not taught in Bologna. However, there are some top-notch courses on Asia taught in Bologna. This term, Prof. Plummer is teaching "Asian Economic Development" and Prof. Pomfret is teaching "The Economies of Central Asia".

Any questions? You know how to find us.

Amina Abdiuahab

Spring at SAIS Bologna

It's that time of the year. Here's a little video, just for the fun of it. Enjoy.



Nelson Graves